eBusiness Weekly
Business Writer
Socio-economic justice coalition, the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD), has launched the TakeAction Campaign and CitizenApp which is a platform for citizens to demand transparency and accountability in public finance management as well as report its mismanagement.
In line with this, citizens can utilise the CitizenApp to upload reports in video or images on mismanagement of public finance resources in an effort to make duty bearers accountable.
The latest campaign succeeds the HowFar campaign launched in 2021, which asked duty-bearers key accountability questions.
“The #TakeAction campaign is a call to action for all citizens to raise their agency through demanding transparency and accountability. Beyond asking duty-bearers to account (#HowFar), the current campaign is a call to action for citizens to go the extra mile,” said ZIMCODD.
This comes as Zimbabwe continues to face public accountability and transparency questions seen through frequency in corruption scandals that come out.
“These cases occur at all tiers of governance and life including central and local Government. This persistent loss of public resources has caused citizen’s lives to get harder as service delivery becomes poorer and the economic indicators continue to fall. The brunt of this crisis is faced by the poor and vulnerable.
“The CitizenApp and #TakeAction campaign require all stakeholders to come together to develop a culture of accountability and integrity. This is to say, citizens, civil society, the media and indeed the government can accrue value through the application,” said ZIMCODD.
According to the civic organisation group, citizens can upload reports, journalists can gather evidence for investigative pieces while public institutions such as the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission the police investigate the reported cases.
The application receives reports on mismanagement of public resources, service delivery issues and corruption etc. The application goes further to provide citizens with utility services such as job posts, the Maintenance in Action programme.
